Perfect Recycler

A cow named Moe, Polly, a
Berkshire hog, and Fowler, a hen were attending a conference of
animal recyclers. They
arrived at the convention center enthusiastically to learn on all
four or two legs, how the animal recycling business is
conducted.

At the registration desk,
Moe for the first time met with Polly and Fowler.

"Hi, I am from Wisconsin
and you are from?" asked Moe, a Holstein cow.

"I am from Rhode Island,"
replied Fowler, the brown hen.

"And, I am from Iowa,"
said, Polly the Pig.

The convention center is
several thousand square feet, and full of exhibits and booths
managed by people from meat, animal rendering and feed
industry.

Polly walked slowly along
side Moe, a black and white Holstein, and Fowler walked fast to
keep pace with his two new friends.

"Look, at that white Ongole
bull from India. The
Ongoles are lean animals known for their strength to pull farm
equipment," said Moe, and exchanged few courtesy words with the
Ongole bull while he walked pass him.

"I bet the Ongoles could
have been well suited to pull the wagons on the Oregon trail,"
commented Fowler looking at the Ongole with respect.

The three friends then
entered Jersey cow arena, a guy handed over a pamphlet comparing
milk production of Jersey cows with Holsteins. "Rubbish, we give
more milk than Jersey cows any time, besides their brown hair
coat is boring." "I would rather prefer Brahman, a white sacred cow from India.
I envy those holy cows of India, I wish I was born there to
escape slaughter here as you know Hindus don't slaughter cattle
as they consider them sacred," Moe tried to impart her worldly
knowledge on Polly and Fowler.

Weighing just around 400
pounds, Polly was slow in moving. She did not appreciate the fact
that some people particularly the English use derogatory
expression "you bloody
swine," or the American slang "you pig."

Outside the conference
arena, a group of people staged a protest march for humane
treatment of animals while transporting them to slaughterhouses.
"Just imagine the hypocrisy, humane treatment before
slaughter. If people were
really humane, they should let us go free into wilderness, we
would join our brethren, the wild boar," Polly snorted wiggling
its short tail.

Polly came across a
potbellied pig, a new breed of pig that spends more time indoors
as a household pet like dog or a cat. "Lucky you," Polly threw a
jealous smile at the pot belly pig. "A pig can never be a pet,
more we were fed, more weight we gain, and at the end, the owners
would dump us at a humane society or animal orphanage center,"
"we are only good for making bacon." "People value us for our
bellies and ribs, some people eat chittlins, a fancy name for our
guts as if they don't want to leave anything to
waste." "In Hawaii, we
are buried in full body in a hole full of hot volcanic rocks to
roast for full twelve hours." "From a pet to bacon to whole body roast, a full circle
of life to a rotund body of ours." Polly's thoughts went wary as
she walked pass Hampshire black hog with a white belt from
Scotland.

" I am with you Polly, how
many people know that our guts are also cooked for several hours,
and served as tripe,
an expensive delicacy." "Kids have no idea that our hooves are
important in making jello powder," said Moe looking at booth
advertising colored jello products.

"Do you know, your skin is
deep fried, and sold as pork rinds in grocery stores around the
country?" informed Moe.

"No, I don't." "People
leave nothing to waste. I know my hide is not tough enough to
make shoes or garments but never expected that it is deep fried
to munch on it," expressed Polly looking at her own skin.

Fowler looked at the swarm
of white leghorns walking up and down in the poultry
section. Fowler never
particularly liked white leghorns. "They are too many flooding the
market with cheap meat and eggs; we the browns may not taste
different but at least we look different; how many brown eggs are
sold in super markets?" asked Fowler tiptoeing on polished
floor.

The three friends then
entered the meat industry arena. In the poultry section, Fowler
was amazed to see the wide variety of choices available to people
to choose from. Chicken legs are sold as drum sticks. Thighs are
sold as red meat and breast is sold as white meat. A contrast of
colors within the bird itself. She wondered what was left of a chicken as inedible -
perhaps feathers, beak and feet?

"To tell you the truth, I
am glad these days we are put to sleep painlessly by gas," "I
understand in old days either our necks were ringed, slashed or
chopped and thrown into hot water to die slowly," Fowler consoled
herself loudly.

"Well, we too are better
off now," said Moe and Polly. "Now a days we are knocked off
unconscious by electric shock before our necks are chopped
off." "We were told that
in old days we were killed in grotesque manner for our meat,"
Polly and Moe left the meat arena in a hurry.

When the three friends
entered animal feed arena, they received free samples to taste
along with pamphlets. A pamphlet hand over to Fowler read as
follows.

High protein pure feather
meal. No beaks or legs are included. Clean Feathers are
hydrolyzed and the pulp is dried to maintain its storage quality.
Feed your chicken with high protein feather meal and reap the
profits quick. Minimum Protein value of 70% guaranteed.

Fowler was dumbfounded to
learn that she was regularly fed on a meal made from chicken
feathers. "As people
pronounce at their cremation "dust to dust", shall we have to
declare "feathers to
feathers," asked herself. She threw away with disgust the
feather meal sample handed to her by a crafty
salesman.

"Listen to this, Fowler,
the meat and bone meal sample was made from cooking our body
parts in animal rendering factories across the
country." "We are
practically eating ourselves to death." "The pamphlet says all
our inedible parts are crushed, cooked and dried to make a fine
high protein meal to feed cattle and hogs like us." "Is it not
something?" "Shall we
have to declare -meat to meat meal - at the time of our
slaughter," Polly and Moe were saddened to learn their fate after
their death.

"People were forcing us to
be cannibals or shall we say annibals." "They are using us
as Perfect Recyclers
by feeding us with our own meat, bones and blood," declared Moe
and Polly, and feathers added Fowler. "We want to eat fodder and
grain not our processed body parts". "Our body parts shall be
composted to spread on land to grow grains and fodder to feed
us." "Just like humans, we come from dust to return to dust - not
from feathers to feathers or meat to meat meal or bone meal,"
declared the sad animals.

The three friends decided
to speak out loud in their respective communities on returning
home to stop munching on feed made from their own body parts in
the name of animal recycling. They marched out of the convention
center shouting a slogan "we want to be fed with feed from land
not from rendering plant."

On way back home, Fowler
made up the following poem with the title "A perfect Recycler" to
share with fellow birds on returning home.

A Perfect Recycler

Oh feathers, my beautiful
feathers,

I didn't know you would end
up as my feed.

Feathers to feathers, what
a perfect recycler I am.

Moe and Polly together
drafted the following poem with a title, "Dust to
Dust".

Dust to
Dust

Our guts and bones cooked
into

meat and bone meal

a good fertilizer,

but not our daily
ration.

Guts to dirt,

but not into our guts.

Moe, Polly and Fowler
decided to keep in touch to campaign against recycling animal
parts to produce animal feed and promote grain and fodder as
animal feed.